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Sony details new α5100 mirrorless camera

There’s a very stylish, very small, α5100 camera on the market from Sony and it plans to hit shelves in September. With heavy-focus on being a lightweight, portable APS-C camera, the new device also comes with quite a few interesting features.

The a5100 camera (model ILCE-5100) will feature the Fast Hybrid AF system, made popular by the α6000 model, focusing in on your subject in just 0.07 seconds. Sony also confirmed that it will borrow the α6000’s image sensor (24.3 MP APS-C Exmor CMOS sensor) – and the powerful BIONZ X processor.

“Sony continues to innovate in the mirrorless camera space, offering products that are not only smaller and lighter than competitive DSLRs, but that consistently outperform them,” said Neal Manowitz, director of the interchangeable lens camera business at Sony. “The new α5100 is a primary example, offering world-class AF speed and performance in a palm-sized body at a great price. It’s powerful enough to satisfy the most experienced DSLR shooters, yet not too intimidating for the casual weekend photographer.”

Additionally, the α5100 camera has an extremely responsive touch screen which works with the AF system to enable Touch Focus, allowing shooters to focus by simply touching the intended subject on any area of the LCD screen – even if it’s at the far edges.

The new α5100 model also comes equipped with Eye AF and Lock-on AF functions that debuted in the α7/ α7R, a Flexible Spot AF area function, and AF-A mode (automatic switching between AF-C and AF-S) that is also offered in the α6000. The α5100 will support full HD video shooting in AVCHD as well as the XAVC S2 codec. XAVC S paired with the advanced focusing system of the α5100 makes for a compelling HD video shooting solution that only a select number of cameras in market today – mirrorless or DSLR – can offer.

Additionally, with the power of the BIONZ X processor, the camera is able to read, process and output data from all of the sensor’s pixels during video recording, ensuring that it produces the highest quality video possible by eliminating aliasing, moire and false color artifacts.

The new camera also features dual video recording, allowing it to simultaneously record two files – one in Full HD (AVCHD or XAVC S) and the other in lower resolution MP4 format – to a single installed SD card2. This gives videographers a high-quality file for viewing on large screens or working on in post-processing, as well as a smaller, lower data-rate version that is ideal for uploading and sharing.

Pricing and Availability

The Sony α5100 compact interchangeable lens camera will be available in September 2014 in black and white in a kit with a compact, versatile 16-50mm motorized zoom lens (model SELP1650) for about $700, or as body-only for about $550.